Guide to searching the source catalogue

     
     
     

Contents

What is included in the

catalogue?

Searching the catalogue

Advanced search options

Glossary of catalogue terms

Accessing data sources

Citing sources

       

This section provides you with information on how best to use the BRIN catalogue of primary sources on religion.

Browsing the database

If you are interested in simply seeing what is available, it is possible to browse the full set of source records. This allows you to view the records indexed by 'type of data' (the title of the source or summary of its contents). At present there are 1,669 records in total.

Alternatively, a basic free text search is possible, as well as advanced search restrictions, of which the date and faith community options are likely to be most useful. Click on the links on the left to find out more, or return to the search page to begin your search.

What is included in the catalogue?

BRIN catalogues three types of data source:

  • Official data compiled by the Government

  • Data compiled by faith communities, such as accounts, directories or yearbooks

  • Social survey and opinion poll sources, the large majority of which use national samples.

Our aim is to provide extensive information on important and useful quantitative sources - rather than a bibliography of works on the sociology of religion in Britain. To that end the following principles are used to determine whether a source is included:

  • The sources should be quantitative rather than qualitative, and in general relate to religion as a social phenomenon.
  • The sources should be concerned with Great Britain. There is a great deal of religious data available on Northern Ireland which is archived at ARK, while CAIN also provides access to Northern Irish data sources. For sources created before 1922 – when the independent Irish state was established and Northern Ireland became self-governing within the United Kingdom. Sources covering the UK as a whole are not excluded, however, nor pre-1922 sources covering Northern Ireland or Ireland.
  • General or national social surveys. This category includes surveys such as the British Social Attitudes survey, the Labour Force Survey, the Home Office Citizenship Survey and Eurobarometer. Some social surveys include recurring questions on religion which allow us to track religion over time. Some include specific ‘modules’, or sets of questions, covering religious issues and personal religiosity in depth. Some are panel studies which follow a set of individuals over time.
  • Commercial opinion polls which include questions on religion. Starting with Gallup in 1937, opinion polling companies began investigating attitudes to religion or respondents' religious behaviour. While often imperfect (read more here), they are an important historical source where no others exist, and allow us to construct a longer-term view of religious change. Commercial polls may also attempt to sample subgroups in rapid reaction to news events, while there is a longer lead time with large-scale social surveys. While it is not possible for us to identify every opinion poll which happened to ask the respondent's religious affiliation, we have identified surveys which consider religion in some detail or are particularly large and important.
  • Coherent faith community-level sources: recurrent administrative sources which cover an extensive period, or large-scale representative surveys of a particular group.
  • Important local or community surveys. They may be included because they cover a relatively neglected subject, such as BRIN ID 2436 (William Pickering's detailed study of Rawmarsh and Scnthorpe, which included information on funerals as a rite of passage), or BRIN 2140 (the Leeds study of 'common religion', namely paranormal and alternative belief).

In general the sources included are 'primary' sources, namely data collected from the field. Faith communities are typically concerned with their community members, faith ministry and lay staff, and finances. Government and academic researchers are typically concerned with individual-level data, as well as data at the level of particular administrative units, such as the UK as a whole, Great Britain, England, Government Office Regions, local authorities, health authorities, police authorities, schools, or council wards.

Inevitably there is a limit to coverage, and so we have been highly selective in the following areas (although important relevant sources are still represented):

  • Studies which are methodologically somewhat suspect, unless they are one of the very few sources available.
  • Studies where the population in question is fewer than about 200 people (small numbers are admitted, however, for other units of analysis besides individuals).
  • Complete coverage of soures relating to the psychology of religion, a related but different and extensive subject area. A good starting-point for the empirical study of the psychology of religion is Peter C. Hill and Bernard Spilka, The Psychology of Religion: An Empirical Approach (Guildford, 2009).
  • Ministry Studies, or the study of religious ministry as a professional practice. Again, this is a large subject which has grown rapidly over the past two decades, so while such sources are represented here, we are not giving complete coverage.
  • Empirical content analysis of scriptural and other religious texts or media.